Jessica has been investing for awhile and took steps a couple of years ago to begin to diversify her portfolio. However, she is now concerned that the portfolio isn’t correctly balanced and wants to minimize any selling due to tax consequences.

Frank is a 55 year old executive with a $3 million portfolio. He is happy with the portfolio’s diversification and risk/return profile, but would like to carve out a piece of his investments, say 10% or so, to try and “beat the market”.

George is nearing retirement and doesn’t want a downturn in the market to force him into working for another couple of years. On the other hand, George is worried about inflation and its impact on his standard of living while retired.

Ed and Mary are retired and depend on their portfolio to yield around 5% to supplement their retirement income. They want to maximize their investment income while not putting their nest egg at too much risk.

Max and Erma are well on their towards saving for retirement with a well-diversified portfolio. Although they have taken a hit in the recent bear market, they still have a substantial nest egg and want to protect their investments against any inflation threats that may arise from the massive monetary and fiscal stimulus actions taken by the U.S. and other large economies.

Jane and John have experienced significant declines in their portfolio over the past year and want to lock in capital losses now to offset future gains. They anticipate a market upturn at some point in the near future, so they don’t want to be out of the market. At the same time, they want to avoid any problems with the “wash-sale” rule that discourages the sale and repurchase of a similar security within a 30-day period.

Bill is a busy professional who is investing for the future of his growing family, to support his aging parents and to eventually retire. He has investments across several accounts and doesn’t have the time to review his portfolio holistically, let alone rebalance it on a regular basis.

Christopher is revisiting his portfolio and has decided to expand his investing horizons beyond the shores of the U.S. to the large, yet emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China, also known as the BRIC markets.